'Brand Kejriwal-AAP have a long way to go even if they win another Delhi election...'
'It is a force nobody can ignore, not even Mr Modi, because it will keep punching above its weight,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Delhi Police on Wednesday told the Delhi high court that further custodial interrogation of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar is required in the wake of the arrest of two other accused students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya in the sedition case.
Pune police on Tuesday raided homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them -- poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
There is going to be no defence of freedom of thought from this government.
Defiant Jawaharlal Nehru Univeristy students who have been punished in connection with a controversial event on campus on Tuesday asserted they will not pay fine and vacate hostels.
Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, facing sedition charge for allegedly raising anti-India slogans at the university campus last month, were on Friday granted interim bail for six months by a Delhi court on ground of parity with Kanhaiya Kumar.
A police source said Umar and Anirban are presently being interrogated by two separate teams led by Assistant Commissioner of Police rank officials.
In an unprecedented show of solidarity, thousands of students along with scholars, academics and the intelligentsia on Thursday hit the streets of New Delhi decrying the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar over charges of sedition and demanding his immediate release.
Freedom of speech and expression does not merit debate; it exists with conditions to regulate its use. However, a citizen's rights end where another citizen's begin
'This is a political case and police is being used here right from the day one.'
NSUI's Rocky Tusheed won the president's post by a margin of 1,590 votes while ABVP's Mahamedha Nagar defeated NSUI's Minakshi Meena by 2,624 votes to win the post of secretary.
'All governments try owning the message, but the Modi-Shah BJP has developed it into a fine art.'
The RSS realises that with a majority BJP government at the Centre and in several states, now was the best time to undermine and perhaps outdo the Congress-Left 'stranglehold' over campuses and young minds.
"It was wrong of Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders to express their solidarity with these JNU leaders and therefore I have filed a case of sedition against them," adds Goud.
'The message the government is sending out is you are not safe if your dare oppose this regime.' 'The entire incident gives you an understanding of what happened in Germany during the Third Reich.' 'This is jingoism and this is not nationalism of any kind.'
Hundreds of students and teachers of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia on Tuesday hit the streets with a call to "save" the varsities from the "onslaught" of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and "curbing" of dissent.
'Despite a quarter century since India began the uphill battle of moving away from its peculiar hybrid of imperial-feudal-socialism, it remains distressingly -- and sometimes reassuringly -- the country I left in 1986,' says Rahul Jacob.
'Jignesh Mevani has many strengths: Youth, articulation, fearlessness, proficiency with social media, political and ideological flexibility.' 'Also focus, as in targeting the BJP as the one and only enemy for now and using that justification to align with the rest,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Some of the letters exchanged between the arrested activists spoke of planning 'some big action' which would attract attention, Singh said.
In her complaint to the DCW, the student has said she has received 'rape' threats on social media allegedly from members of the ABVP after she condemned 'violence in name of nationalism' in the backdrop of Ramjas incident.
Justice Pratibha Rani, before whom the Delhi police claimed that they have witnesses who have identified Kanhaiya and others raising anti-India slogans, will pronounce the order on March 2.
'The Constitution, which talks about democracy and equality, is something that will be applied in this country, and not Manusmriti in which the RSS believes.'
'The category of crime and criminals called Maoist or Naxal or #UrbanNaxals is an illegitimate creation of right-wing propaganda media frenzy.' 'It is a fiction repugnant to the Constitution and the law of the land,' argue Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
'The best remedy would be to scrap Section 124-A of the IPC, a colonial vestige, altogether.' 'However, if legislators don't want to do so, they can do two things.' 'They can formally amend Section 124-A to bring it in line with what the Supreme Court has said about sedition.' 'The words which stand on the statute book today were inserted in 1898.' 'The Supreme Court's words are not a part of Section 124-A.'
'When you come to Delhi, you see that there are many Kashmirs here -- the Dalits, Muslims, women, bonded labourers.'
'It used to sound very strange.' 'That the same child who used to sing Jana Gana Mana the loudest in class, who celebrated August 15 and 26th January with such fervour and who has always nurtured the desire to make India a better nation being called desh drohi.' 'It was very painful.'
'The blood that runs in the veins of our family can never be anti-national.' 'They called Kanhaiya a traitor for questioning the Indian Army. Do they know that our cousin was killed by militants in Manipur while serving with the CRPF?' Archana Masih/Rediff.com travelled to the land of Lal Salam, Lal Sitara and comrades to find out what moulded India's most talked about student leader, Kanhaiya Kunar.
